Young GOPers: Party Is 'Racist,' 'Old-Fashioned'

Earlier this year, an RNC report cited major concerns with public perception of the party. Now, a 95-page report by college Republicans based on youth surveys offers a similarly bleak portrait, citing a "dismal present situation." Those surveyed called the GOP "closed-minded, racist, rigid," and "old-fashioned," the report says, via Politico. Latinos "tend to think the GOP couldn’t care less about them," and "so long as the issue of gay marriage remains on the table," the party is in trouble.

The report, based on a pair of 800-subject surveys and six ethnically and economically diverse focus groups, found that young people think the GOP approach to discussing jobs and taxes is distasteful. "We’ve become the party that will pat you on your back when you make it, but won’t offer you a hand to help you get there," the report notes. And while people saw Republicans as "strong on defense," they "did not always mean that as a positive"; just 17% of respondents to one of the surveys called the fight against terrorism a priority for elected officials. Republicans can take the youth vote again, the report says, but that will require "significant work to repair the damage done to the Republican brand among this age group over the last decade." Click for more from the report. (More Republican Party stories.)